Easily Missed Details

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This article is a stub. You are welcome to help filling it with information.

This page lists interesting but easily missed observations, in addition to the references and Easter Eggs, that you can make throughout the game Life is Strange. Those observations mainly include actions the Max Caulfield is not directly involved with, objects that cannot be interact with, or simply interesting parallels or foreshadowings.

Contents

After rewinding the first time, Max walks out of Mr. Jefferson's class and rushes to the bathroom to save Chloe Price. However, the player can instead stop and listen to the conversations between several Blackwell students: [1]

On the inside of the doors that lead out onto the main campus grounds is a poster that features the same cartoon man who is present as a sticker on the phone that Chloe decorated with Max when they were little.

There is a poster that contains a mix of languages in the same phrase. The only part that is truly legible says: 您好 (Chinese), and 米人 (Japanese). Put together, this reads, "Hello (您好), American (米人)." The same poster can be seen again in Episode 5 on a notice board in the back office of the general store.

With a close enough look on the display of Victoria Chase's ringing phone during Jefferson's lecture at the beginning of the game, you can see that the name that shows up is "Zach" ("Zak") which is supported by his contact picture. This observation is very interesting regarding the fact that Victoria and Zachary were sexting despite his relationship with Juliet; it's possible that there was more between them.

The doodles on Max's notebook in Jefferson's class at the beginning of the game include the phrase "winter is coming", which is an important quote from Game of Thrones. The meaning behind these words is one of warning and constant vigilance, which really foretells the story. There also seems to be a scribble of Frank The Rabbit from Donnie Darko.[note 1] One of many references to Donnie Darko throughout the game. There is also a doodle of Victoria saying, "yes yes yes Mr. Jefferson."

If you take a closer look at the scribbles on Kate Marsh's notebook in Jefferson's class at the beginning of the game, you will notice that they indicate suicidal thoughts and already foreshadow her eventual suicide attempt. The doodles depict an angel whose face is covered in blood, a tree with gallows as well as the words "WASTE" and "SO LONELY".

When Max rewinds time "unintentionally" to save Chloe from being shot in the bathroom, the blue butterfly is apparently unaffected by her rewind - the only other thing to not be affected by Max's rewind powers is the ghostly doe, as we see later.[2]. This calls the butterfly's true nature into question. However, when Max enters the bathroom a second time (knowing she has powers this time), the blue butterfly can be seen on the sink and is affected by the rewind. It could be speculated that the (spiritual) nature of the blue butterfly has now changed.

After her first accidental rewind in the bathroom which brought her back into the art class, it is possible to see — for a fleeting moment — tears rolling down Max's cheeks. The tears seem to be randomly triggered thus several results are possible.

When Max exits the main building of Blackwell Academy after speaking to Principal Wells, a trail of Rachel Amber "Missing" posters are visible at the bottom of the steps. At first glance, the scattered posters appear to be just that: scattered. The player has no context at this time (during initial playthrough) that these posters are connected to the "girl in the bathroom" (Chloe). It is only later that it's discovered that all of the Missing posters in the game were printed and distributed by Chloe, but the easily missed detail is that the poster trail leads off in the direction of the parking lot where Chloe's truck is parked. It is a nice detail in the game to show that Chloe was so panicked after the incident in the girls' bathroom that she dropped posters as she ran towards the parking lot.

As you wander around the front of Blackwell Academy you will find graffiti of a shark "eating" an otter. Not only does this represent the school's swimming team dominating their rival school's team, it also refers to Episode 3, where Chloe says to Max, "Why, look, an otter in my water!", to which Max says, "I can't even watch any of those shark shows."

While investigating Chloe's room, Max can talk with Chloe. She asks Max the following: "So tell me, what does Max Caulfield do for fun now that she's a grown-up?" and Max can give stereotypical answers such as "Party all night.". If she gives that answer however, Chloe doesn't believe her and clearly gets disappointed as she hoped Max would be happy taking photos. If Max rewinds and gives an honest option "I take photos", Chloe says that this answer inspired her and she no longer feels hopeless.

In David Madsen's garage, Max can find and comment on a photo of him that she finds in a drawer. Certain features on this photo match features that are near to Stella Hill's room in the girls' dormitory. Zooming in on the photo also confirms that the dorm room says 217, which is currently Stella's room.

On the pin board in the hallway of the Madsen household, there is a photo of Chloe skateboarding. There are distinctive physical features in the background of this photo that match Blackwell Academy's parking lot: the trees; the land gradient; the top of the street lamp; the trash can; the same type of bay marking. (There is also a similar truck, but this is partially obscured by Chloe to be sure and it would be unrealistic to think the same truck is still parked there years later.) This shows us that Chloe was skateboarding on Blackwell's parking lot. The photo was taken by William[3] when Max was still living in Arcadia Bay.[4]

If you play Max's guitar she plays the song "Crosses", which can be heard by turning on her stereo and on the bus during Episode 2. If you turn on her stereo and then play the guitar, Max will play along with the song.

Page 10 of Max's journal will display the photo she had taken of the blue butterfly in the bathroom at Blackwell Academy. Later in the episode, Chloe will take this photo from Max during a conversation they have in Chloe's room.[6] From this point, the photo has disappeared from page 10 because Chloe now has possession of it.

This graffiti can be found at the beginning of the path leading to the lighthouse, near the picnic table. Contrary to the one on a rock next to the lighthouse, this graffiti only appears if you took the blame for Chloe's pot. It is unknown if it is a bug or if it was meant to have a deeper meaning in a later episode. Interestingly, it doesn't appear during Max's visions.

As soon as Max gets out of bed, if she makes her way quickly over to the window by her fan and waits for a few seconds, Warren can be seen peeping around the corner of the building and looking up at Max's window before quickly disappearing back around the corner, probably afraid of being spotted by Max.[7]

If you play Max's guitar she plays the song "Something Good", which plays in the opening of Episode 2. If you play the guitar while the song is playing on Max's Hi-Fi, Max will play along with the song.

If Max heads straight to the shower room, she will miss Trevor writing a sweet declaration of love on Dana's room slate ("Love you. T."). He is only there for a moment before waving goodbye to Dana and leaving the girls' dormitory.

After Max gets out of the shower, she can use any one of the sinks. However, if she does this, she will hear a voice shout, "Hello?! Water!", for which Max apologizes with, "Sorry, I forgot!", having forgotten about the water pressure. She can rewind this moment and make a comment about letting people enjoy their showers in peace.

When Max returns from her shower, and if she had told the principal the truth about Nathan having a gun in the girls bathroom in Episode 1, she will find her "Photo Memorial Wall" vandalized. Underneath the graffiti, 15 of her photos are now missing from the wall.

When Max looks at the Lighthouse after sitting down at the Two Whales Diner, she thinks to herself that the lighthouse "looks so mysterious" and wishes she could "stay in this moment forever". This is a foreshadowing or an ill prophecy of what will happen later in Max's nightmare from Episode 5, "Polarized" when Max actually gets stuck in that moment "forever" - if it wasn't for Chloe's rescue, of course.

The writing "Warren + Alyssa Anderson 2013" inside a heart is scratched on a desk in the Science Lab, next to where Brooke is standing. Another one, reading "Warren = Genius of My Ass", is on a desk behind Warren. They share similar handwriting, and the author is most likely Alyssa.

Alternative theory: Actually the handwriting is noticeably different between both pictures, just look at the shared letters. For example the Rs. The Warren = Genius of my ass carving looks more similar to the Rachel Amber 4ever carving from the optional photo.

Nathan Prescott's facial expressions and voice tone in the Photography Lab (and later at the Two Whales Diner) are more aggressive if you reported him to the principal and took a photo of Victoria in Episode 1.

At the junkyard, near to the spot where Max first notices the doe, there is a "piece of clothing", a punk-rock shirt similar to Rachel's style, torn and hanging near the spot. If she interacts with this clothing, she will say, "This was an old-school punk shirt..."The game asset for this shirt is listed as TX_Fab_JnkRachPnk_D, which suggests that it indeed belonged to Rachel Amber.

There are two appearances of a 978 AM license plate in the game. The first time we see it is in David's garage, displayed high on the wall, above the window blinds; this plate appears to be in good, clean condition. The other appearance is in Chloe and Rachel's junkyard hideout; this one has a dirty appearance. Oregon law requires that passenger cars be issued with two license plates to be displayed on the front and rear bumpers.[note 2] There is a possibility of Chloe having taken David's second plate to display in her hideout.

If Max doesn't head towards the dormitories after seeing Kate on the roof, several Blackwell students can be heard making comments about the situation.[8]

Zachary: Who is that up there?Daniel: Oh, no! Is that Kate?Trevor: I hope not.Male Student: Holy shit! That chick is right on the ledge!Taylor: If she jumps, she might not die...Victoria: Yes, she will.Alyssa: I cannot believe this, Brooke...Dana: No! No!Trevor: How long has she been up there?Evan: Long enough.Dana: Don't! Come down! Get down!Brooke: Poor Kate. That fucking viral video.Daniel: Man, this is so not why I came to Blackwell!

A close look at Victoria's phone during Kate's suicide attempt shows that she wasn't only taking pictures: the red dot on the top left of the screen indicates she was actually recording the whole scene.

When the Blackwell guards start sweeping the school for intruders, you can find Chloe hiding between a locker and the wall in the girls' locker room. If you look at her and speak to her, they both have the same thoughts: that there’s no room for Max to squeeze into that hiding spot with her.

After choosing a locker room at the pool and going inside, if you rewind as far back as possible, then turn around and open the door from the inside, Max will attempt to surprise Chloe like she did in the Principal's office. Chloe will, however, reply with:

The song played by Chloe after they wake up in Chloe's room had a line that goes "We might die from medication but we sure killed all the pain" which could be foreshadowing Chloe's fate in the alternative timeline if Max would choose to accept Chloe's request (by granting Chloe an overdose of morphine).

If the player made three of the following four choices, Chloe will change her phone background to a selfie of Max:

Took blame for Chloe's weed

Didn't answer Kate's call

Tried to shoot Frank

Stole money from principal's office.

If Max checks Chloe's phone and sees this, it makes her happy, and she will feel this has proven herself worthy of Chloe's friendship again after her long absence from Chloe's life. If the player didn't encourage this outcome by not doing the above (or only made 1 or 2 of the criteria, or met 3 but blamed Chloe for the weed) Chloe won't change her phone background and it remains a picture of her and Rachel. If Max checks Chloe's phone and sees this, she seems disappointed that Chloe hasn't used a picture of her and thinks she can't compete with Rachel. This can be interpreted as Max being jealous of Rachel.

Interestingly enough, the picture of Max is the same picture as on Max's social media profile. It is unknown if Max gave Chloe this picture or if Chloe searched Max's social media page for a picture to use.

When Max puts on Rachel's clothes in Chloe's room, her sneakers are now slightly different even though they have a similar skull logo as on the ones Max wears in the other episodes. This implies that she is either wearing Rachel's shoes or that Chloe shares/shared the same taste in shoes as Max. Max's sneakers have a skater aesthetic, and since Chloe and Rachel used to skate with Justin and his posse, the sneakers Max now wears could belong to either girl.

Before putting on Rachel's clothes, Max can look at her regular clothes from the day before on a chair near Chloe's desk. Her regular sneakers can be seen on the floor. After putting on Rachel's clothes, Max can still look at her regular clothes and the sneakers remain in the same place, confirming that the two pairs of shoes are not the same.

A possible explanation for why the skull logo is very similar and the shoes are only slightly different is that these two models of sneakers belong to the same brand and collection, but maybe not from the same year.

The 法餅 ideograms (either Chinese or Japanese characters) can be seen on various items in the game. In Chinese, 法餅 means French pastry; it is an abbreviation or contraction of the term 法式西餅 (literal translation: French-style Western pastry). 法餅 has been discovered on five items so far:

When Max and Chloe were younger, they used to have "wine tasting sessions" at Chloe's home whenever her parents weren't at home. There are two instances in which this is mentioned. The first is when Max is at Chloe's house for the first time in the game and is able to explore the living room. She finds the stain that was left from one time where they had spilled the wine on the ground and it makes her remember that situation vividly. The second one is when Max goes back to 2008 and tries to prevent William's death. When William is leaving the house, he says, "And no Max and Chloe wine tasting sessions."

When Max sadly stares down at a 2008 photograph of her and Chloe near the end of this episode, she hears two echoey lines of a conversation from her past. It can be hard to make out the words, but according to the game files they are:

Chloe (laughing):"Get a close-up of Max!"

Max:"Knock it off, Chloe!"

Max drops the photo in shock. When she picks it up again to focus on the image, she hears four more lines:

William:"Yes girls, time for a picture!"

Chloe:"Cheesecake!"

William:"Come on now, say 'Pancake!'"

Max (laughing):"I can't even see!"

As she achieves focus and goes back in time through the photo, two dialogue pairings will occur at random depending on the time you take to bring the image into focus. Three known combinations are:

After she created a new timeline where she is now a member of the Vortex Club, Max's camera bag is slightly different from before: instead of having a patch "Cool Story Bro" on the shoulder strap, a patch with a vortex symbol can be seen, probably a way for Alternative Max to show that she is a Vortex Club member.

When the player enters the living room of Chloe's house, Max notices that the clock has stopped. She wonders if it was her fiddling with time that caused the clock to malfunction. Upon closer examination, it is revealed that the reason was simple: a ladybug stuck in the dials.

When introducing Chloe to mister Jefferson, Max — for a brief instant — unmistakably hesitates before saying, "friend". It sounds like Max didn't know for sure how to qualify her relationship with Chloe.

If Chloe shot Frank in the leg and Max lingers around his RV, she will be able to hear him complaining about the pain, saying he can't believe he was shot by two teenagers and that he must do something for his leg. If Chloe stabbed Frank in the leg and Max lingers around his RV, she will he able to hear him saying he needs to take the knife out of his leg and how he needs Pompidou.

When Max enters the VIP section of the End of the World Party, she can notice a couple in the dark, hidden behind one of the lane reels. If she stands nearby for long enough, she can listen to their secretive conversation (labelled "VIP_HotScene" with TeenBoy and TeenGirl in the game files):

If Max wrote her name underneath Chloe and Rachel's in the hideout in Episode 2, presumably Jefferson writes "YOU'RE ALL GONNA DIE" in red near the graffiti and changes "Rachel was here" to Rachel IS here". Interestingly, this mirrors something Nathan was supposed to say in Episode 4 in an unused sound file:

"The storm is coming! Oh, you're all gonna die! I see you, I see all of you, and you're all gonna die!"

Also notable is the direction they enter the junkyard and pass the hideout, which are the train tracks on the opposite site they entered the junkyard before.

If the player doesn't interact with anything after Principal Wells woke up on the plane, Max will state how happy she is that Chloe's alive and that she's not going to let Chloe out of her sight again.

But Chloe is alive! Focus on that, Max... Now I have to wait until after my trip to see her again... and I'm not letting her out of my sight again…

In the dark room, right after Jefferson says to Max, "Sorry, I burned all your stuff. I got a little carried away", he actually adds something before saying, "Especially since you've developed from nerd to hero within a week". It's almost inaudible because Max's comment "Fuck! He burned my diary! That's why I'm still here" completely drowns it out. The audio files confirm that Jefferson actually said, "You know, I always believed in your vision." For an unknown reason this part hasn't been subtitled.

Before leaving the Dark Room to head to the Two Whales, Max has the option to look at and take Chloe's bullet necklace, which is lying by the computer. After looking at it, Max will make the following comment: "Oh, Chloe... I'm going to save you... for the last time."
If Max decides to take the necklace with her, she will say: "There's no way I'm leaving your necklace here."

In this episode both David and Chloe reflect upon their relationship with each other and for once acknowledge and appreciate the other one for something they had always seen as a flaw before. For Chloe, it is acknowledging and appreciating David's affinity for security. For David, it is Chloe's smoking habits. Both lines are structured in parallel.

As Max makes her way to the Two Whales Diner to see Warren to get the photo, she can walk over to Frank's RV that is situated outside the diner. A new detail is now present on Max's graffiti (if she opted to draw on the RV in Episode 1). This new detail appears to imitate the gunshot wound that Chloe suffered to the head at the end of Episode 4. At this point in the game, Max's intentions are to obtain Warren's photo so that she can go back in time to save Chloe from this particular fate.

Since everything is backwards in this sequence, if Max uses her rewind power, she will obvert everything for a temporary period (making everything proceed "normally": movements of the surroundings, dialogues, and the background music "uoY fo llA oT", etc.).

However, the rewinding will not work on the spirit doe, as always.

Also, when taking the optional photo of the skeleton (#8), the player has to press the "Journal" key to execute the reversed action of this photoshoot.

When Max is inside the Two Whales Diner in her nightmare, she can look out of the windows to see hundreds of people standing eerily still. These people likely represent the residents of Arcadia Bay that could die as a result of Max's actions.

During the nightmare, Chloe enters the diner to defend Max from her doppelganger. At the very moment before Chloe jumps into the booth, Max can be seen raising her eyebrows, apparently astonished by Chloe's arrival.

If the player didn't choose to kiss Chloe in Episode 3, then during the Warren and Chloe scene, after Warren insults Max, Chloe will say, "I hear that. I'm not into... nerds, but you're pretty cute". An optional dialogue in Episode 3 during Max and Chloe's swim in Blackwell's pool implies that one of Max's insecurities is that she is thought of as a nerd especially by Chloe. The obvious pause before "nerd" in Chloe's dialogue shows that Max still feels herself inadequate for Chloe as the nightmare sequence demonstrates.

In her diary Max drew her plane ticket. She wrote "San Fransisco" instead of Francisco. The ticket is written to be from Portland, and not Arcadia Bay. Likely because the nearest airport is in Portland.

The last diary entry can be viewed by e.g. pressing Tab on PC, just after the nightmare sequence. The entry is heavily focused on Max's feelings towards Chloe. If she didn't kiss Chloe in Episode 3, Max asks herself if she has subconsciously been developing some feelings for Chloe and if she chose to kiss Chloe, Max seems more sure about her feelings. (Click here to read the entries)

Seven distinct bodies can be seen among the rubble of Arcadia Bay. Four of them can be seen twice under different angles. The fourth body is speculated to be Warren due to his wrecked car, or at least the same model, being near the body.

↑Frank The Rabbit is a person named Frank in a life-size demonic-looking rabbit costume who has the ability to move through time, and who warns Donnie, the protagonist of Donnie Darko, that the world is going to end in a specific amount of time. His objective is to guide Donnie in his path to correcting the timeline of the primary universe to prevent the world's destruction.

↑If Max uses her rewind to try bringing the doe back to the junkyard in Episode 2, it will not work, and Max wonders why this is so.

↑According to pre-release gameplay footage of Before the Storm, a 16-year-old Chloe can look at the pin board and say, "Dad took these photos."

↑The same photo is visible on the same pin board when Max jumps back in time through a photo in Episode 3 to the day William died, when she was aged 13; therefore, Max would have known that Chloe was into skateboarding. It is calculated that Chloe and Max would be 14 and 13, respectively, from September 21, 2008 - March 10, 2009, and the school year would have started in early September. This means that Chloe would have been a student at Blackwell at the time Max went back in time, because of Max turning 13 on September 21.

↑Due to the stylistic differences between the E's, confirmation was sought from the truck's concept designer, Edouard Caplain, who confirmed that the final word is definitely "die" and not "dip".